Labor Day Weekend Part 2: Denver Zoo

After the Hot Air Balloon Festival in the morning, we headed straight for the Denver Zoo. I've been wanting to take Evan and Julia to the zoo since neither of them had been there before. Both girls napped in the car on the way there (we had woken them up at 6:00AM to see the balloons after all). The high that day was 94 degrees. Ugh. Keep in mind that the previous days before and after were in the high 70s.

As you all know, I do love going to the zoo. This zoo is no exception. The zoo itself is quite big. We saw a hyena, which both Evan and I realized we'd never seen in real life before. It was quietly sitting there, staring at us. The experience was kind of ruined though by a super obnoxious lady who loudly declared that hyenas were ruined for her after seeing the Lion King. It was one of the stupidest things I've ever heard a grown up say.
They had baby tigers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The polar bear exhibit is one of my favorite things about the Denver zoo. They have an underwater viewing tank where you can watch the bears dive and swim. The bears chose not to do that this trip and instead spent their time sleeping.
And swimming in the tank with no underwater view.

Do you see that ginormous catfish by Elisabeth's hat?! Yeah, it was bigger than her!!!


This super ugly turtle was one of Julia's favorite animals.

There are two birds sitting on that feeder. Can you see them? They're kind of camouflaged.
They're Pekin robins!!







We arrived at the zoo around 10:00AM. By 1 o'clock, the girls were about beat. It was hot and getting crowded.


I love bears.


The zoo was fun, but I must admit that I enjoy the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo more. There's more things for kids to play on. After just an hour of seeing the animals, the girls were ready to climb and run and play. Denver zoo doesn't really offer that for kids. Cheyenne Mt. zoo has an entire kid area that's for them to explore and frolic in. And even though the Cheyenne zoo is way more steep (cause it is actually built into the mountain) and a bit smaller, I think some of their animal exhibits are more easily accessible. Plus that have that neat-o small creature hut where the kids can see animals up close and even get to ask the zoo workers questions.

Nevertheless, we had fun at this zoo too. When asking the girls what they're favorite animal was, Elisabeth said the sleeping white wolf she saw. Julia said the baby cows. Sigh.